Vietnamese Tomato Sauce (Sốt cà)

January 15, 2011

Vietnamese Tomato Sauce (Sốt cà) © kvalifood.com

A Vietnamese-style tomato sauce - lighter and more garlic-forward than Italian versions. It uses a generous amount of garlic (cooked at the start for mellowness and raw at the end for punch), plus rice vinegar and soy sauce for the distinctly Vietnamese flavour profile. Good with noodles, fried tofu, or as a base for braised dishes.

Ingredients

½ cup garlic, pounded
½ cup vegetable oil
2 kg tomatoes, blanched, peeled, seeded and roughly chopped
3 tbsp sugar
2 tsp sea salt
½ cup mild rice wine vinegar (or 1 tbsp white vinegar)
1 tbsp soya sauce
1 tbsp garlic, chopped, plus extra

Directions

Heat the vegetable oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add the pounded garlic and cook for about 1 minute, stirring, until fragrant but not browned.
Add the prepared tomatoes, sugar, sea salt, rice wine vinegar (or white vinegar), and soya sauce. Stir everything together and bring to a boil.
Reduce the heat and let the sauce simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes have broken down and the sauce has thickened.
Turn off the heat. Stir through the extra chopped garlic - this raw garlic addition at the end gives the sauce a fresh, sharp bite.

Notes

Keeps for about 5 days in the refrigerator.
Blanching and peeling 2 kg of tomatoes takes some time - score an X on the bottom of each tomato, blanch in boiling water for 30 seconds, then plunge into ice water. The skins slip right off.
This is a large batch recipe. Scale down proportionally for smaller quantities.